An epic quest line for an epic battle -- Mount Hyjal

[bhodi]

http://www.worldofraids.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2650

Caverns of Time: Mount Hyjal will ship with World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade expansion retail launch. The dungeon requires 25 player raid groups. However, not everyone can enter the dungeon. This dungeon requires many pre-requisites:

1. You must be level 70

2. Complete Caverns of Time: Durnholde (Old Hillsbrad) and Complete Caverns of Time: Dark Portal (Black Morass).

3. Talk to Soridormi (Adult) - the consort of Nozdormu. You may find her roaming around the clockwork in Caverns of Time. She will give you a quest titled: The Vial's of Eternity.

However, this is no 1-2-3 immediate quest. To acquire the two vials of eternity requires the completition of many quest chains that will take months to accomplish and good gear.

4. You must complete the Cipher of Damnation quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley and the Stormspire quests in Netherstorm. The Stormspire quest chain starts in Area 52 with the Consortium Ethereal. The chain ends when Nexus-Prince Harammad sends you to A'dal with a crystal. Maybe you should have talked to Akama at the Warden's Cage in Shadowmoon Valley.

5. A'dal will give you the Arcatraz Key quest: The crystal key is divided in two halves. The first half is held by the last boss of Tempest Keep: Botanica - Splintertree. The second half is held by the last boss of Tempest Keep: Mechanar. Once you assemble the Arcatraz Key and have completed the two quest chains: Stormspire and Cipher of Damnation -- Khadgar will talk to you, asking you to talk to A'dal. A'dal will give you the Kael'Thas dungeon key chain quest. The key is named Tempest Key - for the final showdown with Prince Kael'Thas Sunstrider.

6. Brace yourself - - you need to be revered with the Sha'tar Reputation faction to obtain the Tempest Keep Heroic-Dungeon key, Revered with the Lower City to obtain the Auchenai Key to unlock the Auchindoun Dungeons in Heroic-mode, Revered with the Cenarion Expedition to unlock the Heroic-mode for Coilfang Reservoir dungeons, and Revered with Thrallmar/Honor Hold to unlock the Heroic-mode Difficulty for Hellfire Citadel dungeons. Hope you have had fun reading this far.

7. Complete Trial of the Naaru: Mercy; Trial of the Naaru: Strength; and Trial of the Naaru: Tenacity. No easy task ... for you have to complete the three trials in Heroic-mode. Trash mobs hit for 15,000 non-crit damage, no less. You have to kill Murmur in Auchindoun: Shadow Laberynth, retrieve an unused Axe of the Executioner from Hellfire Citadel: Shattered Halls, Kalithresh's Trident in Coilfang Reservoir: Steamvaults, and to rescue Millhouse Manastorm (gnome) after killing the last boss of Tempest Keep: Arcatraz. Once you have completed those four dungeons in Heroic-mode, return to A'dal and he will grant you the Tempest Key to enter Prince Kael'Thas dungeon -- which requires 25 players. Kill Kael'Thas and loot his Vial of Eternity.

8. Now you need to kill Lady Vashj and loot her Vial of Eternity. No data has been gathered concerning the requirements to enter Lady Vashj's dungeon.

9. By now you should be Friendly with the Scales of the Sands faction.

10. Now you can enter Caverns of Time: Mount Hyjal

In this dungeon you go back in time 4 years into the past to fight alongside Malfurion Stormrage, Tyrande Whisperwind, Thrall, and Jaina Proudmoore against Archimonde and the Burning Legion. Your mission is to stop the Infinity Dragonflight from altering time.


THE VIALS OF ETERNITY

INTRO

Soridormi: The Battle of Mount Hyjal is one of the most well-guarded events of this timeline. Should an intruder alter its outcome, the impact would extend to all subsequent moments in history.

As the Aspect's prime mate I'm far more in tune with the flow of time than other bronze dragons. I recently sensed a minute ripple in time emanating from the events surrounding the Battle of Mount Hyjal. Someone or something is attempting to change this timeline and they must be stopped.

Soridormi: Seven vials were drawn from the Well of Eternity by Illidan. He poured three into the lake on top of Mount Hyjal and a second Well of Eternity was created. For years the rest were believed lost.

With the opening of the Dark Portal, we've come to know that he gave one each to his lieutenants Kael'thas and Vashj. Retrieve what remains of them; we wil need them as foci to open a gateway to any events tied to Mount Hyjal, recent or ancient. The outcome of the Battle of Mount Hyjal must be preserved.

I've asked the impossible of you, yet I expect you to succeed. Much depends on it.


QUEST OBJECTIVES

Soridormi at Caverns of Time wants you to retrieve Vashj's Vial Remnant from Lady Vashj at Coilfang Reservoir and Kael's Vial Remnant from Kael'Thas Sunstrider at Tempest Keep.

Rewards: 24g 60s

[Nonentity]

Faction Grinding for the key.

Lame.

[bhodi]

Apparently, it's not really faction grinding; you can get revered just by doing all the quests in an area.. supposedly they've done away with cenarion circle / furblog stuff.

[Fabricated]

I'd complain about it, but shit man, that battle is the battle in the Warcraft series.

Also, I was going to guess it was like a combination of Naxx/Ony attunement with the quest series and faction requirements, but just doing all the quests? Fucking awesome. It basically forces the catasses to "slum" with the rest of us to get shit done, unless they do guild-only groups to get stuff done (which not very many guilds on my server do...shit, I've been on MC/BWL/Ony attunement pugs made up of random people from all the biggest/advanced guilds on my server).

[Paelos]

If they keep faction rewards the same as they are in Beta, then yes, revered faction is easy to obtain. If they nerf the hell out of them by around 1/10th, which most people expect they will, then it will take forever and piss off a lot of people.

[Morat20]

If they keep faction rewards the same as they are in Beta, then yes, revered faction is easy to obtain. If they nerf the hell out of them by around 1/10th, which most people expect they will, then it will take forever and piss off a lot of people.

Don't most Betas have supercharged XP and such, in order for people to rapidly advance and try out the game? Sort of like EVE's test server, and their "everything is 100 ISK" market?

[Merusk]

If they keep faction rewards the same as they are in Beta, then yes, revered faction is easy to obtain. If they nerf the hell out of them by around 1/10th, which most people expect they will, then it will take forever and piss off a lot of people.

Don't most Betas have supercharged XP and such, in order for people to rapidly advance and try out the game? Sort of like EVE's test server, and their "everything is 100 ISK" market?

That's the rumor people keep spreading.  However, they spread the same rumor during WoW's initial release, and Blizzard's response at that time was (paraphrased); "Why would we do that? It's fucking stupid. We're testing leveling rates here too, so why inflate the xp?"   

Considering they've tweaked the XP to hit certain levels a few times already, I'm inclined to believe there is no 'fast xp' nor 'fast faction'.  Turnins of stuff for cenarion expedition seem on-par with other rep turn-ins in the exsisting game, as do the quest faction rewards.  I dunno why anyone would think they'd nerf it.

[Ironwood]

First Glance, this does in fact look lame as all hell.

However, I have been drinking.

I'll sleep on it.

[Morat20]

If they keep faction rewards the same as they are in Beta, then yes, revered faction is easy to obtain. If they nerf the hell out of them by around 1/10th, which most people expect they will, then it will take forever and piss off a lot of people.

Don't most Betas have supercharged XP and such, in order for people to rapidly advance and try out the game? Sort of like EVE's test server, and their "everything is 100 ISK" market?

That's the rumor people keep spreading.  However, they spread the same rumor during WoW's initial release, and Blizzard's response at that time was (paraphrased); "Why would we do that? It's fucking stupid. We're testing leveling rates here too, so why inflate the xp?"   

Considering they've tweaked the XP to hit certain levels a few times already, I'm inclined to believe there is no 'fast xp' nor 'fast faction'.  Turnins of stuff for cenarion expedition seem on-par with other rep turn-ins in the exsisting game, as do the quest faction rewards.  I dunno why anyone would think they'd nerf it.

I didn't know if it was true -- I just kept hearing it in relation to other games, although I had wondered how they tested levelling rates. Some systems (like EVE's) don't really have a "levelling rate" problem and are generally more interested in gear, and I suppose one can always rely on catasses to see if it's actually possible to level too fast.

Speaking of -- why has soft-caps on XP, faction, honor, what-the-fuck ever never really been in style? Diminishing returns after a certain point, or just plain "You've fucking made 10 times what we consider "fucking catass XP" -- go play a fucking alt or sleep or something" kind of caps?

[bhodi]

Well, first don't phrase it as a cap -- you add a 'bonus' to people under the cap. Second, I think it's a good idea from a business perspective. It's an easy way to extend your content for the people who insist on burning through everything. They do also tend to be the most vocal, etc. etc., file that under 'why people care about the hardcore'.

[caladein]

First Glance, this does in fact look lame as all hell.

Well, when you take a look at it as a 60 just walking into Outland, that's a lot of shit, but it really isn't.

The easiest analogy is say... you need to kill Rag to get your BWL attunement.

• Step 1: Get the Rep required for Heroic Mode 5-mans (you'll do this anyway).
• Step 2: Lotta Quests.
  
• Step 3a: Clear the 5-mans on Heroic to get keyed for one of the 25-man raids (if you're a raider, you'll do this anyway).
• Step 3b: Clear two Caverns of Time instances (again, you'll do this anyway :P).
• Step 3c: *insert Lady Vashj attunement here*
• Step 4: Clear two of the 25-mans to get access to CoT: Hyjal.

EDIT: Forgot the quests before you need to worry about the Heroic 5-mans.

[lamaros]

First Glance, this does in fact look lame as all hell.

Well, when you take a look at it as a 60 just walking into Outland, that's a lot of shit, but it really isn't.

The easiest analogy is say... you need to kill Rag to get your BWL attunement.

• Step 1: Get the Rep required for Heroic Mode 5-mans (you'll do this anyway).
• Step 2: Lotta Quests.
  
• Step 3a: Clear the 5-mans on Heroic to get keyed for one of the 25-man raids (if you're a raider, you'll do this anyway).
• Step 3b: Clear two Caverns of Time instances (again, you'll do this anyway :P).

• Step 3c: *insert Lady Vashj attunement here*

http://www.worldofraids.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2692

• Step 4: Clear two of the 25-mans to get access to CoT: Hyjal.

EDIT: Forgot the quests before you need to worry about the Heroic 5-mans.

[bhodi]

What's with the camwhore and her 'rogues do it from behind' avatar? Is she trying to play on the "omg r u reely a girl?!" thing? Sheesh.

Edit: So she's a site admin. If there's a more egocentric thing to do, I can't think of it.

[sinij]

Grinderific.

[Morat20]

What's with the camwhore and her 'rogues do it from behind' avatar? Is she trying to play on the "omg r u reely a girl?!" thing? Sheesh.

Edit: So she's a site admin. If there's a more egocentric thing to do, I can't think of it.

Is she the rogue? Or is her boyfriend/girlfriend the rogue? If the latter, why is she wearing the shirt? Modern culture confuses me. (On the other hand, I have two shirts that make math jokes, so I'm not one to talk....)

[Merusk]

According to the sig, she's the rogue.  How small-minded of you to assume she has a boyfriend.  Maybe it's a girlfriend, or a favorite sex toy.  She calls it "Garret"

As to the question of 'wtf is up with the avatard' yes, she's attn. whoring, and playing up the 'omg i'm a girl, tee hee' angle.  Also incredibly self-conscious about the size of her shnoz, since she took a pic that minimizes the angle as well as hides it in overexposure.

[Morat20]

According to the sig, she's the rogue.  How small-minded of you to assume she has a boyfriend.  Maybe it's a girlfriend, or a favorite sex toy.  She calls it "Garret"

As to the question of 'wtf is up with the avatard' yes, she's attn. whoring, and playing up the 'omg i'm a girl, tee hee' angle.  Also incredibly self-conscious about the size of her shnoz, since she took a pic that minimizes the angle as well as hides it in overexposure.

My wife finds the "OMG I'm a girl" thing to be obnoxious. On the other hand, we're in a guild with a lot more actual girls than normal (I think the average player age is 25+, ignoring the "kids of Guild members" sub-guild) -- so no one spazzes when they hear a girl's voice on teamspeak.

Now, if only something could be done for fucking idiots in game stores -- she had some sub-20 drone at a gamestore act like it was a HUGE fucking burden to check her and her single PS2 game (for my kid) out. According to his comments to his 'friend', whom he had spent 45 minutes haggling with over tradeins (idiot friend wanted a 360 with the bare minimum of tradeins) he only helped her because she was getting pissed, because "Women don't understand games". (And he only helped her when the other customer -- a male -- refused to be served because my wife had been waiting in line when he came into the store. She hadn't said a fucking word, just stood in line with her single game to purchase).

She's been playing console games since before that little fuck was born. (The console is hers -- as is the DS. I don't really play either). As I suspect he'll find out, while she might not "understand games" she DOES know how to contact upper management and complain about sexism and poor service. Of course, it helps that my brother in law is a manager in the same chain -- different store. :)

Sorry. Tangential rant.

[Strazos]

Stuff

Yup, sounds like she was dealing with quite the douche. Where I come from, he would have been fired.  Also...why didn't someone there jump on the other register for her? Isn't "Get In, Get Out, Get On Your Way" some company's slogan? Granted, if someone wants to talk to me about something, I'll talk, but when I shop that's how I usually do things - I just want to get my shit and leave. Most of the people I find that work in game stores are simply stupid fanboys who hardly know shit about games.

Also, lol @ your wife reporting the kid. 

[Morat20]

Stuff

Yup, sounds like she was dealing with quite the douche. Where I come from, he would have been fired.  Also...why didn't someone there jump on the other register for her? Isn't "Get In, Get Out, Get On Your Way" some company's slogan? Granted, if someone wants to talk to me about something, I'll talk, but when I shop that's how I usually do things - I just want to get my shit and leave. Most of the people I find that work in game stores are simply stupid fanboys who hardly know shit about games.

Also, lol @ your wife reporting the kid. 

Apparently the other guy, while not sexist, was helping a youngish (like 12 to 14) kid who was also doing tradeins. He was apparently nice, and was helping an actual customer instead of fucking around with a friend.

And yeah, all things considered, I'd have simply told my buddy the "Let's play What-If on these parts until I get a deal I can live with" to hold on a second and rang up the chick with the one game.

[Xanthippe]

What's with the camwhore and her 'rogues do it from behind' avatar? Is she trying to play on the "omg r u reely a girl?!" thing? Sheesh.

Edit: So she's a site admin. If there's a more egocentric thing to do, I can't think of it.

Sheesh, you guys.  She's merely advertising either that she likes buttsex or strapons or both. 

What's this thread about again?

[Xanthippe]

Apparently the other guy, while not sexist, was helping a youngish (like 12 to 14) kid who was also doing tradeins. He was apparently nice, and was helping an actual customer instead of fucking around with a friend.

And yeah, all things considered, I'd have simply told my buddy the "Let's play What-If on these parts until I get a deal I can live with" to hold on a second and rang up the chick with the one game.

I wouldn't characterize the guy's behavior as sexist necessarily but just as loutish.  Clearly the concepts of customer service or job duties are beyond him.  Probably his first or second job.

I have had great experiences with people at game stores, considering I'm a middle aged woman - I definitely do not look like a typical gamer.  I've surprised people, sure, but have not had a bad experience (so far).  Now that I think of it, I haven't had a bad customer service experience (in person) since I turned 40 (at least), although they were fairly common before that.   Hmm, maybe it is sexism (combined with age-ism) after all.  I sometimes found it difficult to be taken seriously by people before about age 40.

This is a pretty good derail, here!

[stray]

This is a pretty good derail, here!

Funnily enough, it was the only post I read all the way through here. 

[pxib]

This is a pretty good derail, here!

Funnily enough, it was the only post I read all the way through here. 

Which just goes to show that as hot as folks are for loot and advancement, what really draws them in is NARRATIVE.

 

[bhodi]

(On the other hand, I have two shirts that make math jokes, so I'm not one to talk....)

This one I like.

[Evil Elvis]

Rerail:

I think it's kinda stupid.  Rep is alot easier to obtain, no doubt, but you still won't hit revered just from doing a quest here or there while you level up.  You're going to have to spend a few days working on it, longer if you're on a pvp server, and the areas are probably going to be heavily contested for a few months.

Losing a person attuned is going to be a bitch.  Just about the worst thing ever in WoW was getting someone Ony attuned for Horde, and this looks like it's actually worse.

[caladein]

I think it's kinda stupid.  Rep is alot easier to obtain, no doubt, but you still won't hit revered just from doing a quest here or there while you level up.  You're going to have to spend a few days working on it, longer if you're on a pvp server, and the areas are probably going to be heavily contested for a few months.

You don't just get it from doing quests, you also get it from doing a certain dungeon. You get Thrallmar/HH rep for doing Hellfire Citadel and Thrallmar/HH rep is used for... unlocking Heroic Hellfire Citadel (among other things).

[Paelos]

I think it's kinda stupid.  Rep is alot easier to obtain, no doubt, but you still won't hit revered just from doing a quest here or there while you level up.  You're going to have to spend a few days working on it, longer if you're on a pvp server, and the areas are probably going to be heavily contested for a few months.

You don't just get it from doing quests, you also get it from doing a certain dungeon. You get Thrallmar/HH rep for doing Hellfire Citadel and Thrallmar/HH rep is used for... unlocking Heroic Hellfire Citadel (among other things).

Exactly, here's a big tip from me about rep:

Screw questing early. Do nothing but hump whatever new dungeon is in the zone you're leveling in at least 5 times. They take about 30 minutes to complete with a competant group, so you can pound this out in one evening if you have about 3 hours to play. Get a good 5 man crew set up for certain times of the day as this is one of the best ways to gain quick rep/xp/gear. Also, you'll get great drops right off the bat in Hellfire Ramparts, then more rep and goodies in the Furnace. After you're done with that, use your five man crew to knock out the epic quests in Hellfire. Grab the solo quests outside of primetime hours, but only after you're at least honored in Honor Hold.

The same goes for Zangermarsh, just go whomp on the Naga Dungeon fast and furiously after you get the quest for it. Going to dungeons early heavily favors your rep gain since as of now rep gains off quests are static.

[Modern Angel]

Rerail:

I think it's kinda stupid.  Rep is alot easier to obtain, no doubt, but you still won't hit revered just from doing a quest here or there while you level up.  You're going to have to spend a few days working on it, longer if you're on a pvp server, and the areas are probably going to be heavily contested for a few months.

Losing a person attuned is going to be a bitch.  Just about the worst thing ever in WoW was getting someone Ony attuned for Horde, and this looks like it's actually worse.

Nope. You'll get Revered from quests. In fact, my experience in beta was that there was pretty much EXACTLY enough rep to get revered in any given faction from just quests. Then you go to exalted with dungeon runs.

[Xanthippe]

Exactly, here's a big tip from me about rep:

Screw questing early. Do nothing but hump whatever new dungeon is in the zone you're leveling in at least 5 times.

I'm one of those silly people who actually likes the quests, and reading the stories and so on.  More than getting good loot, in fact (as witnessed by my pathetic lvl 30ish gear on my new lvl 60 lock).  But it's good to know for my 2nd and 3rd 60s that I'll eventually be levelling up.

[Evil Elvis]

I haven't played my beta account in a while, but my priest did most of the quests in hellfire, and ran ramparts/furnace 4x each, and he's not revered.

[Merusk]

Revered with who, though?  Honor Hold?  They seemed to be lacking the repeat turn-in quests that the other factions have, so yeah I could see that one as a problem. 

Cenarion Expedition it was fairly easy to hit Honored with just questing in Zangramarsh, and apparently there's more CE quests in Daggerspine Mtns. Aldor/ Lower City factions are going up pretty quickly as well, but I just started their quests on Monday.  If I'd run instances I could probably hit Revered no problem with those three, and I'm only 64.  The idea is to hit Revered with them at 70, since you can't run Heroic mode until then.

[ClydeJr]

For those of you who like some hot flowchart action...

[Paelos]

I did some quick math on the HH rep. There are ~35 quests that give ~8800 rep. Mobs in the Ramparts give 5 rep a kill up to 5999/6000 in honored. Then, you have to kill trash mobs in the later stage of the Blood Furnace to keep getting rep. If you did half the quests up to the point where you flipped over to honored in the ramparts. You'd have about 4400/12000 left to do in quests alone, with the other 7600 to be made up by dungeon kills. Now, remember that you don't need this rep until 70, and the Shattered Halls will grind you the rest of the way up to that revered point with 5 per kill. With about 100 mobs in each dungeon, you get about 500 a run in rep. So, about 15 runs one or two per day should take about 1-2 weeks.

[Righ]

Out of interest, is all this going to hang on Brood of Nozdormu reputation, thus excluding folks who were absent during the AQ opening and raiding periods?

[Phred]

Out of interest, is all this going to hang on Brood of Nozdormu reputation, thus excluding folks who were absent during the AQ opening and raiding periods?

No. Caverns of Time has their own new factions. Keepers of Time and Scale of the Sands.